20 new cancer treatment centres across India: Minister

The government will set up 20 new advanced cancer treatment facilities across India over the next few years to meet the rising burden of the disease, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said here Tuesday.

He said that for Madhya Pradesh, the central government has planned a new State Cancer Institute (SCI), along with two Tertiary Care Cancer Centres (TCCC).

"Annually 11 lakh new cases of cancer are detected in India. Of them, about 6.06 percent are in Madhya Pradesh," Harsh Vardhan told the media here.

The minister was speaking at the inauguration of an indigenously developed Linear Accelerator at the Indian Institute of Head and Neck Oncology, a project of the Indore Cancer Foundation Charitable Trust.

He said the three facilities planned for Madhya Pradesh will be set up at the Vidisha district hospital, GR Medical College in Gwalior, and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College in Jabalpur.

The first two will be TCCCs while the one at Jabalpur will be an SCI.

"Each 50-bedded TCCC will be part of an existing government hospital with well-equipped and functional departments of medicine, surgery, gynaecology, ENT, pathology and radiology.

"The union health ministry will provide one-time support of up to Rs.45 crore to each TCCC, including up to 30 percent for construction and renovation," he added.

Harsh Vardhan said the government will also set up 20 SCIs across the country.

"The total cost of each will be Rs.120 crore, of which the central government will contribute 75 percent. In all, 50 such institutes are planned in the country over the long term," he said.

"Each SCI will be the apex institution in the state for cancer-related activities. It will provide outreach services, diagnosis and referral treatment, develop treatment protocols and increase the human resource availability," he said. - IANS